Saudi Arabia has signed a deal with 78 automobile companies for checking fuel consumption, which is currently at 800,000 barrels daily for 12 million vehicles, according to a report.

The memoranda of understanding (MoU) is aimed at reducing it to 500,000 barrels daily by 2030, said the Arab News report.

Global automobile companies have agreed to implement the Saudi Arabian standard for fuel economy in light vehicles, representing more than 99.95 per cent of vehicle sales in the kingdom, it said.

Saudi Arabia is one of the countries with high population growth rates, a steady annual growth rate of 2.7 per cent, which is projected to reach about 30 million, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, deputy minister of petroleum and mineral resources, was quoted as saying.

Prince Abdulaziz, who is also the chairman of the subcommittee for the preparation of the Saudi programme for energy efficiency,

The PGR, along with geographical and other factors, have contributed to the increase in demand for transportation in general, and road transport in particular, bringing the total distance covered to over 80,000 km, he said.

The vehicle fleet growth has been predicted to reach over 26 million by 2030 and high daily consumption of gasoline and diesel rate to about 1.86 million barrels if the industry fails to take practical measures to raise the efficiency of energy consumption and check oil wastage, said the report.

The energy efficiency programme identifies the factors behind the low efficiency of energy consumption in the road transport sector, it said.

The specialists in the programme will work to develop an ambitious goal to improve fuel economy in Saudi Arabia by more than 50 per cent of total fuel consumption in the road transport sector by the year 2025, bringing the kingdom on par with the developed countries with similar standards, it added.